Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder? Which One?
#1
Transcript of Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders, and Economists’ Press Conference Following Economic Forum 10/21/2009
http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1414
“So for that reason, despite the fact that we’re looking at an absolutely horrendous long-term fiscal outlook,”
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#2
Wall St. Journal : The Case for Optimism on the Economy 12/16/2009 | Alan Blinder
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2408814/posts?page=24
“Let me offer instead, in deliberately one-sided fashion, the case for optimism.”
Still up here;
Transcript of Pelosi, House Democratic Leaders, and Economists’ Press Conference Following Economic Forum
http://www.realestaterama.com/2009/10/22/transcript-of-pelosi-house-democratic-leaders-and-economists%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2-press-conference-following-economic-forum-ID06137.html
Speaker Pelosi. ...”I am pleased that we had the benefit of the thinking of Dr. Mark Zandi, Dr. Alan Blinder, Bob Kuttner, Heather Boushey, Bill Hambrecht, and Allen Sinai. You have their backgrounds. We will hear from them now.”
...Alan Blinder. I’d like to start with a short apology, which is I’m not going to run off from you, but I have an appointment across town at 1 o’clock so I have to leave in about 10 minutes. But what I want to say is this: the Congress and the Administration and the Federal Reserve have done already an enormously heavy lift in limiting what could have been a much worse economic outcome. That said, it’s pretty bad as it is right now.
On the consensus forecast, I’m a little bit more optimistic than Mark. My personal view is a little bit above consensus, but that’s a quibble. On the consensus forecast, the GDP is already growing, but jobs are still shrinking and are likely to shrink for a while yet and that makes it very hard for political leadership or for just economists to the extent that we talk to the public to persuade people that things are getting better because they don’t look like they are getting better when jobs are a) still so scarce and b) are even shrinking rather than arising. So for that reason, despite the fact that we’re looking at an absolutely horrendous long-term fiscal outlook, I, like Mark, and I think most of us around the table, believe that at least a modest, now this is where people will disagree, but at least a modest increase in the deficit is targeted very strongly on job creation. Not a scatter shot, but targeted very strongly on job creation would be appropriate.
I think this is a case where it is both good policy and good politics which you know is not always the case but in this instance it is the case. That said, we do have to be mindful of the long-run deficit problem. I have been taken recently in a number of venues to be quoting not quite correctly, paraphrasing St. Augustine who said something like, “Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet” We do need to become more chaste about the budget deficit, we do need to pay attention to the long-run fiscal hole, a lot of attention but in the short term, this is not the time to do it. 2009 and probably 2010 are not the times to do that.
One thing I spoke to the Members about knowing that it is very, very difficult to do, is to try to get some long-run commitment to greater fiscal responsibility while we are still trying to alleviate the job problem. I know this is a very, very difficult thing to do, I don’t think it is quite an impossible thing to do. I think it is really quite remarkable that this many Members of the congressional leadership show up and spend several hours with the likes of us, talking seriously about the economy. This little session we’re having right now notwithstanding, this was not a media event. We were behind closed doors and talking very, very frankly over a range of issues. I think that happens too little in Washington and it is a tribute to the Speaker and to the other Members that they took so much time out of their schedules to do this. I thank them.
Speaker Pelosi. “Thank you, Dr. Blinder”